PuTTY

PuTTY is a powerful SSH/telnet program used to
access your shell/maintenance account. The following instructions will show you
how to configure PuTTY to connect to Panix.

Obtaining PuTTY

You can download PuTTY directly from the
PuTTY downloads page.
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=21558

Before You Connect:

There are a few settings
that need to be changed. Here is a screenshot of what you'll see when
PuTTY first starts up:

In the 'Host Name (or IP address)' box, enter
'shell.panix.com' (without the quotes).

Under 'Protocol', click the 'SSH' radio button.

The screen should now look like this:

Click the 'SSH' category on the left-side panel. You'll see this
screen:

Under 'Protocol options', click 'Enable Compression'.

Under 'Protocol options, Prefered SSH protocol version',
click the radio button next to '2'.

The screen should now look like this:

Finally, return to the 'Session' category on the left-side panel.

In the 'Saved Session' box, enter a name you'd like to remember
this session by, for example, 'Panix'.

Click 'Save', and the name of the session will appear
underneath 'Default Settings'. From this
point forward, you can simply double click the name of the session and
you'll automatically connect to Panix.

This final screen will look like this:

Establishing a New Connection:

Double click the name of the session you've just created, or highlight
it and press the 'Open' button at the bottom. PuTTY will pop up a screen
similar to this one:

All Panix host machines have a unique key fingerprint that can be
checked upon the initial connection, to make sure the machine you're connecting to
is in fact the real machine, and not a stolen session. Panix keeps a
copy of all our shell machines' fingerprints for comparison here: Panix Public Key
page

This is a one-time occurence. Once you tell PuTTY that the machine
is valid, it will remember for future connections. However, since
'shell.panix.com' resolves to several different machines, over
time, you'll be asked to accept several different keys. Best security
practice is to check the key fingerprint on our Public Key page
*each* time you are asked for it.

After accepting the key, you'll see a login prompt like so:

Enter your username, and your password at the subsequent 'Password: '
prompt. You'll be greeted by a 'Welcome to Panix' banner, and a
shell prompt. Welcome to Panix!

Customizing PuTTY

PuTTY is extremely flexible. Essentially, anything not mentioned
here can be tweaked at your leisure by clicking the various 'Category'
headings on the left-side panel. This contains options for window
size, font, specific keyboard settings, ability to setup SSH
tunnels for other services, etc. PuTTY's homepage has a wonderful
help section that describes each option at http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/docs.html

Remember that if you make a change to a session, you must return to the
'Session' category, and click 'Save' to make it permanent.